Final Fantasy XIV's Stormblood expansion will release in June
Final Fantasy XIV boss Naoki Yoshida has confirmed that Stormblood, the latest expansion for Final Fantasy XIV, will launch on June 20 2017.
The news was announced at the end of the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival in Tokyo, where Japanese fans of the FF MMO gathered to celebrate the game's ongoing success and hear directly from the developers.
Square Enix were keen to note that htis date wasn't absolute, but pre-orders will kick off on January 24th. In addition, a Collector's Edition has been revealed. It includes all the things you'd imagine, including artwork from classic FF artist Yoshitaka Amano, a figurine, a cloth map and so on. That'll be available for both PC and PS4, while a digital collector's edition will also be available and instead includes in-game equippable items.
Stormblood adds a variety of new things to FF14, but some all-new announcements were made at Fanfest. So... let's quickly go over the big ones.
Red Mage Character Job/Class
All-new at Fanfest in Japan was the reveal of the Red Mage character class. This new job is exactly what you'd expect - a jack of all trades who can use ranged magic but also has access to a rapier type sword and some melee attacks to go with it.
The Red Mage fighting style mixes both black and white magic for a unique style - and of course the character uses the iconic Red Mage gear that was established in previous FF games.
Nobuo Uematsu returns for the theme
Putting in a special appearance at Japan's FF14 fanfest in a pre-recorded video message, Nobuo Uematsu revealed that he's on board to compose the theme song for Stormblood. Uematsu of course previously composed a good chunk of the original FF14 soundtrack, soaring vocal track Answers for A Realm Reborn and Dragonsong for Heavensward, the game's first expansion.
In his Fanfest video message Uematsu described the game's theme music as currently being around 60% complete - and as such not quite ready to show. He did say it'd be a more upbeat song than the previous two, however.
Uematsu also confirmed he'd be making an appearance in-person at the FF14 fan fest in Europe this coming February - it's there we can expect to hear the song's debut.
Swimming, New Bosses and more
The previous FF14 expansion introduced flying mechanics thanks to flying mounts. Stormblood now adds a new wrinkle to that - it's bringing in the ability to swim, allowing players to dive into bodies of water and paddle about - but even dive underwater.
You won't be able to swim in all bodies of water in the game, but in many new designated bodies of water or older ones that are adjusted to work with it you will be able to do so. This is more about exploration, as you'll not be doing any fighting underwater either.
In addition to swimming some other new features were talked about including a new Beast Tribe in the Ananta and a new Primal Lakshmi, new bosses such as Omega and a new Ivalice-themed Alliance Raid. Pictured all below.
